


A Question of Royalty

by WordMusician



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Boredom, Gen, Team TARDIS, an Innocent question
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22885171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordMusician/pseuds/WordMusician
Summary: A ficlet glimpse of Team TARDIS on a lazy Sunday with no adventure at hand
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness/Rose Tyler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	A Question of Royalty

“Did you have any royalty?” Rose asked from her perch on the jump seat.

“Royalty? Where? What do you mean by ‘have’?” came the voice from under the grating.

“She said ‘have’ not ‘had’, Doc. Though I’d be curious about the latter actually,” Jack clarified with a smirk. He sat on grating, legs dangling into the hole the Doctor had made and was making himself useful handing down tools.

The Doctor leveled a stern gaze through the shadows at his unrepentant face, “I’m sure you would, Jack. But I’ve never been one to kiss and tell.” Jack’s smirk spread to a grin. At least he’d admitted to kissing.

Rose held up the glossy rag Jackie had stuffed in her duffel bag on her last visit. Her mum thought it was important Rose keep up with all the news in her regular time line. While it was debatable as to what Jackie deemed as “news”, at least it kept her entertained while the men folk tinkered and talked about mechanics. She’d had enough of that when she went with Mickey and now with all this futuristic jargon she didn’t even pretend to keep up.

Rose tapped the photo of the handsome couple on the cover, newly engaged. “You say you’re a time lord, so I was just wondering if you had – oh you know, lords ‘n ladies, dukes ‘n duchesses, kings ‘n queens?” The Doctor was very closed off about his home planet and Rose couldn’t help but be curious. She knew Gallifrey’s fate was a painful topic for him, but talking about things sometimes was therapeutic... at least that’s what the breakup article on page 7 said...

“Ah. No. Not royalty like you know it. There were some noble houses but nobility was based on achievement not bloodline. One generation of poor performance could wipe out a family’s standing.” The Doctor frowned thoughtfully. He’d been a continual disappointment to his family and perhaps that had been part of what lead him to steal a TARDIS and run away. In the end, his poor performance had done more than wipe out his family’s standing; he’d wiped out his entire race.

The other two noticed him slipping off into brooding and exchanged worried glances. A broody Doctor wasn’t much fun to be around. “Sounds like good old fashioned capitalism, to me,” observed Jack with false cheeriness.

“So who was your leader then? Did you have elections?” Rose asked.

“Why all this interest in my old society?”

“I dunno, just wonderin’....” 

“Our Lord President was appointed through a combination of prophesy and selection by the High Council. The High Council was made up of heads of the larger noble houses who knew how to wield political power and pass laws that secured their positions.”

“Were you – “

“No.” The Doctor’s head popped up out of the grating. “What is this? Are you suddenly wanting to check my references? I don’t recall giving you my CV,” he quipped. He motioned for Jack to back up so he had room to climb up.

“I’m trying to learn,” Rose replied. Their techno-babble made her insecure at times and she was feeling sulky. “We go to all these places and see all these things. I need to ask questions to learn stuff. You know me: stupid ape without even her A levels.”

Not for the hundredth time, the Doctor regretted that defensive jibe from their early days together. He tried to keep the gruffness out of his voice, “You can spend your time learning about better things than dead societies.”

“But you’re a time lord, you travel all though time; aren’t they all dead societies to you?”

With a sad twist of a smile he replied softly, “Some are more dead than others.” He turned away effectively ending the conversation.

Rose and Jack shared a look and a shrug. They chatted between themselves until Jack got tired of the glances Rose kept sneaking over in the direction of the time lord. She had it bad. He knew one sure way to drag said lord back into their conversational orbit. Slinging a companionable arm about her shoulders, he deliberately dropped his tone, “Well…. if you really want to learn about some alien societies, Rosie...”

Before she could offer any form of reply the Doctor fired a warning, “Jack...” and strode purposefully over to the jump seat. “Did you ever complete that phase relay reroute we talked about?”

“I set it on an auto pattern generation sequence; should be done about now.” Jack squeezed Rose’s shoulders affectionately before moving toward the under gallery.

The Doctor slid onto the jump seat, picking up the discarded magazine. “You know most of this is rubbish, yeah?”

“Yeah, I know. I just read the headline see: Lord Saxon and Soon-to-be Bride. And I got to wondering... time lord, Doctor... Lord Doctor...?” her voice trailed off inquiringly.

He shook his head, imagining a younger Rose with dreams of brave knights on white horses, charging in to save the day. Events had knocked him so far off that fairy tale pedestal he’d have to dig himself out of a crater just to touch the first step. “Nope; sorry. Just the Doctor, like I first told you. Time lord is more of a designation than a title. And there were no “time ladies” by the way; gender was irrelevant.”

Jack, who was unashamedly eavesdropping, started in surprise and shocked himself on an exposed bit of live wire. Gender is irrelevant? No wonder time lords loomed their offspring! Oh poor, poor Rose. But then again he would have to be deaf, blind and stupid to not pick up on the possessiveness the Doctor exhibited: “Hands off the blonde”. Perhaps what this ancient alien needed was to be reminded that gender was indeed very, very important. Jack whistled tunelessly as he schemed. He made a promise to the silent universe that he would get them on their first date, if it was the last thing he ever did.

**Author's Note:**

> I just had to sneak in the foreshadowing of the Face of Boe. Jack is the biggest shipper if you don't count the TARDIS.


End file.
